ANDOVER – Children at Pymatuning Valley Primary School had their Career Day Wednesday, May 20, with a chance to hear from adults in a wide range of career fields and learning to connect the skills their learning in the classroom to how they’ll be used on the job.
Denise Miller, career education coordinator, Ashtabula County Technical & Career Campus (A-Tech), said the children – pre-k through 4th grade – met people who work in hands-on, vocational positions, those who need a postgraduate degree – and everything in between.
In talking to some of the presenters after the event, Miller said they’d all been happy to come down and spend the day with the children of the Andover area.
“One presenter said seeing their eyes light up and the smiles on their faces was worth it,” she said.
The object of Career Day, according to Miller, is to have the children put together for themselves how the skills they’re learning in the classroom translate into what they’ll need to know on the job as an adult.
“These are skills they will use, and they will need to learn,” she said.
Presenters also emphasized soft skills as well as technical ones, she added.
One special set of presenters had a big presence at Career Day – the Pymatuning Valley Future Farmers of America, who brought livestock and heavy farm equipment for the children to learn about.
Having high schoolers and near-to-peer presenters added something a little extra, according to Miller, who said the little ones really respect, admire and look up to them…and really seem to enjoy climbing aboard the big machines and petting the animals as well.
Southern Ashtabula County has a lot of children who come from a family working on agriculture, but not all of them, and Career Day gave those children a chance to see and touch the different sorts of livestock and go hands-on with the farm equipment FFA brought out.
“It makes it real to them,” Miller said.
Career Day gives these young children something extra to build on their classroom learning.
“Experience is everything,” Miller said.
